FOUND: Washington City man found safe in St. George

ST. GEORGE — A Washington City man, who went missing early Tuesday morning, has been located and is safe.

Updated Dec. 5, 3 p.m. The man’s mother posted to Facebook and said her son was found safe. According to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, his vehicle was found near the Enterprise Reservoir and he was located in St. George.

Photo of Nathan Beitler and his vehicle, date and location not specified | Photo from Kristen Beitler Facebook page, St. George News

Nathan Beitler, 18, went missing Tuesday morning near Sportsman’s Warehouse in St. George. His mother, Kirsten Beitler, described him as being an avid hiker, climber, biker and hunter.

According to a Facebook post Kirsten Beitler updated throughout Wednesday afternoon, Nathan’s 1997 green Toyota Camry was located near Enterprise Reservoir.

“We’re thinking that he might not be somewhere really close,” she told St. George News Wednesday morning. “He might be in the Southern Utah area but maybe on a hiking trail or in an area where people go to hunt or something like that.”

Kirsten Beitler also said their family believes he took hunting and camping gear with him when he disappeared.

According to her Facebook post, search parties were sent out Wednesday morning to hunting and hiking areas near Enterprise. She said people should look for Nathan near any bike trails, climbing spots or hunting areas in Southern Utah.

Nathan is 6 feet 4 inches and around 150 pounds. He was last seen wearing a white hooded sweatshirt and jeans. He drives a 1997 green Toyota Camry.

Anyone with information on Nathan’s whereabouts is asked to call the Washington City Police Department at 435-986-5151.

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About the Author

Markee Heckenliable has lived in St. George for 10 years and graduated from Dixie State University in 2018 with her bachelor's degree in mass communication. She's the former editor in chief of the Dixie Sun News, Dixie State's student-run news organization. She also served as features and news editor in the past. Markee is an avid coffee drinker and loves to spend time with her dogs more than her human friends.

8 Comments

Give the family access to the traffic camera footage so they can know whether he did in fact go up highway 18. If you know he was at Sportsman’s Warehouse at a certain time it shouldn’t be hard to track him from intersection to intersection to see which direction he left town in. Aside from a little time and effort there’s no security or privacy implications. This assumes that footage is stored long enough to make this possible.

Also I thought they could audit pings from his phone #. Most hunting areas are out of cell coverage, however they might get a ping from an area Enterprise, or Mt. Carmel, if he was going out to Pink Sand dunes. If he went down to the Strip there’s not much once you get over Wolf Hole pass. Note to hunters / Hikers… You may not be able to make a call but if you get a bit of reception text messages might well go. And it may be intermittent, depending on clouds etc. I was stranded overnight on a dirt road, my 4×4 slid sideways from a dead stop on wet clay into the ditch. Didn’t show up for work the next day! ha ha I had a good reason. Wife didnt appreciate it much but she had the calvary out. The cops didn’t go on the dirt roads tho. Rescued by a guy in an old bare bones Jeep with a winch.

I’m not getting this story. This adult leaves the house with his hunting and camping gear and heads to the sporting goods store on Tuesday morning, To most, this kinda looks like he might be going hunting and camping. But his mommy reports him missing and said he disappeared (?). Then he shows back up the next day? What? I’m not seeing a story here.